“People who had previously been infected with Covid-19 were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, suggesting that natural immunity was a more potent shield than vaccines against that variant,” Reuters reports.
“Protection against Delta was highest, however, among people who were both vaccinated and had survived a previous Covid infection, and lowest among those who had never been infected or vaccinated.”
“North Korea will bolster its defenses against the United States and consider resuming ‘all temporally-suspended activities,’ an apparent reference to a self-imposed moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles,” Reuters reports.
Matthew Yglesias: “Republican members of Congress seem to be increasingly interested in reaching a deal on reform of the Electoral Count Act. This is good news on several fronts.”
“A bill with Republican Party support can pass the United States Senate, whereas a purely partisan bill will die via filibuster. It’s also good news because ECA reform is good on the merits — it won’t fix American political institutions or ‘save democracy,’ but it will reduce the odds of a collapse, and reducing those odds is important. Passing and signing bipartisan bills also tend to be at least a little bit popular and make the president who’s doing it look good.”
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“Senior House Republicans are putting together a list of policy pledges to run on in the 2022 elections, and they are consulting with the architect of one of their biggest historical midterm victories,” the Washington Post reports.
“Newt Gingrich, whose ‘Contract with America’ in 1994 is linked with the GOP takeover of Congress in that midterm cycle, said he has been advising House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on a set of policy items for Republicans to take to voters ahead of the November elections.”
“Republicans are expected to focus their new platform on education policies aimed at tapping into parental discontent; countering the rise of China with new economic measures; and ‘oversight’ of the Biden administration. They are also looking at invoking other traditional GOP goals such as cutting taxes, restricting immigration, criticizing Silicon Valley and repealing environmental rules.”
Amanda Carpenter: “Donald Trump’s actions to overturn the 2020 election were dedicated, intentional, and sustained over time. The insistent notion that Trump and his allies are ‘too stupid to coup’ should not be reassuring. Like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, shake enough door handles, and eventually one opens. By the end of the 2020 story, Trump had learned just how loose are the dusty old frameworks like the Electoral Count Act.”
When President Biden was asked at his press conference asked about the possibility of fraud, he said: “I’m not saying it’s going to be legit… The prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us being able to get these reforms passed.”
Philip Bump: “Again, this is a remarkable break from the main line of rhetoric over the past two years. With good reason, there’s been a broad insistence that the most recent election wasn’t tainted by shenanigans. Here, Biden was suggesting that such a thing was possible — within the constraints of changed state laws and processes and, presumably, the context of a concerted effort to install officials sympathetic to Trump’s false claims at the local and state level of election monitoring…”
“So now what? Are we heading into a federal election with the president’s stated position that the results should be eyed skeptically? This is not unfamiliar territory, certainly, but not a situation that many Americans are eager to repeat.”
Time: “One year in, there’s a growing sense that the Biden presidency has lost its way. An Administration that pledged to restore competence and normalcy seems overmatched and reactive. Biden has been caught flat-footed by not one but two COVID-19 variants. He has repeatedly failed to close the deal with the Senate he boasted of mastering. The former chair of the foreign relations committee has presided over escalating tensions with Russia and China as well as a chaotic pullout from Afghanistan. The consequences to America’s credibility abroad could be lasting, says Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador in Kabul.”
“Defenders argue that Biden is managing as well as anyone could. Taking office in the shadow of Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, he faces a country riven by pre-existing divisions and an opposition that views him as illegitimate. Biden racked up early successes rolling out vaccines and relief funds, they note, and hasn’t gotten sufficient credit for his bipartisan infrastructure bill…”
“Yet in a period of historic crisis, the President has been a shrinking figure, giving fewer interviews or press conferences than his predecessors. Voters widely question his capabilities. Privately, top Democrats acknowledge the public is losing faith in his leadership.”
Jonathan Chait: “Democrats are almost certain to lose their control of government in the midterm elections, and it is difficult to say when they will have their next chance. McConnell is trying to cast his victory as an eternal one, ending the debate.”
“But nearly the entire Democratic Party has figured out that, in the long run, the filibuster hurts them more than it hurts Republicans. The next time Democrats gain control, they will do away with whatever remains of it.”
According to previously unreported tax disclosures, shipping magnate Dick Uihlein’s non-profit foundation “poured millions of dollars in 2020 into a sprawling number of groups connected to efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory and reimagine election law, as well as other right-wing extremist organizations, including ones designated as hate groups,” the Daily Beast reports.
Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue (R) “called for the creation of an election police unit in Georgia, echoing a proposal by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and continuing Perdue’s focus on election falsehoods,” CNN reports.
A new Gallup poll finds that 20% of Americans think the pandemic is improving, while 22% think it’s staying same and 58% say it’s getting worse.
A new AP-NORC poll finds President Biden’s approval rate has sunk to 43% to 56% — a new low for his presidency.
For comparison, the FiveThirtyEight polling average of Biden’s approval rate has also bottomed to 41.9% to 52.5%.
First Read: “Biden’s decline has been across the board, but what stands out are the drops from the middle of the electorate and among key parts of the Democratic base.”
“Robert Costa, the high-profile political reporter, is leaving his longtime home at The Washington Post to become a full-time television journalist at CBS News, where he will serve as the network’s chief election and campaign correspondent,” the New York Times reports.
The FBI took a computer and boxes of other items in their “court-authorized” search at the home of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) Wednesday evening, CNN reports.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack that Donald Trump hosted secret meetings in the White House residence in days before January 6, The Guardian reports.
Grisham’s interview “was more significant than expected.”
“Pro-Trump commentators’ hopes of developing major followings on right-leaning websites after they left Facebook and Twitter have run up against a harsh reality: Their audiences on those sites have stagnated,” the Washington Post reports.
“A Washington Post analysis of audience data for 47 prominent right-wing influencers who flocked last year to alternative social networks Gab and Gettr, the video-streaming site Rumble and the chat service Telegram found that their followings surged immediately after President Donald Trump was banned on the mainstream sites.”
“But those audiences have barely grown in the year since. In some cases, they even declined.”
Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. dispatched the head of the Central Intelligence Agency to Berlin and Kyiv, a week ahead of an official trip by the secretary of state to the region, as part of its efforts to convince European nations to rally around a tougher response against Moscow and in support of Ukraine, an approach that is complicated by the countries’ closer economic ties with Russia.”
Sitting across a long table from President Vladimir Putin at a Covid-conscious distance, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran reminded his Russian counterpart on Wednesday that Tehran had been “resisting America for 40 years,” the New York Times reports.
And now that Russia was plunging deeper into its own confrontation with the United States, Raisi told Putin, it was time to take on “the power of the Americans with an increased synergy between our two countries.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reports the two countries will hold joint naval exercises with China tomorrow.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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